July 17, 2008

And Speaking of Eggrolls - How About Filling Them With Strawberries?

This was just an experiment - I had some leftover eggroll wrappers in the fridge and I had some strawberries. And I thought - hey - deep-fried dessert!

First, I chopped up the strawberries and mixed them with a little sugar. In hindsight, I should have let them sit in the sugar longer to release more of the juice, and then either strained off the excess liquid or cooked it down a bit. Lesson learned. On we go.

Next, I took an eggroll wrapper and filled it with some of the strawberries...

I also made a couple of them this way -

When I had four made (like I said, this was experimental)

I heated up the oil to between 350-360 F and then fried these up.

You can't really see it well in those two frying shots, but just about all of the eggrolls leaked some juice, which is why I'd like to eliminate more of the liquid before the rolls are filled next time.

Once they were nicely golden brown, I removed them from the oil and drained them on some paper towels and then dusted them liberally with powdered sugar.

And then I got all fancy, drizzled some chocolate syrup on a plate, and arranged an eggroll just so...

And so, you ask, how were they?

Not bad. Like I've already said, I'd reduce the moisture level of the strawberries - or I'd add something to help absorb the juice...like a cornstarch/sugar mixture...or some crushed plain cookies....hmmmmm.

They also don't need the chocolate - if I wanted to drizzle something again, just to be fancy, I'd maybe drizzle some thinned lemon curd or a strawberry coulis. Or I'd serve the hot eggrolls with ice cream, because all those hot/cold, crunchy/soft contrasts would be nice.

And that's about it for now! I'll be back later - I've still got a couple of other strawberry-themed posts to write - hopefully I'll get them up today or tomorrow.